Director: Frank Merle. Starring. Malcolm McDowell, Paige Howard, David Dastmalchian, Billy Zane, Katerina Mikailenko, USA. 1h 30m.
Malcolm McDowell somehow manages to steal the show while only playing a small but vital role in this dark twisted interview from hell as he looks away a handful of top contenders for a new role in his powerful company allowing them to eliminate each other for the perfect job.
I was really impressed to see this “sub-genre” of interview/exam thrillers cropping up within the Escape Room horror genre. It’s pretty scary enough to have a few strangers locked in a room desperate to escape but when greed or desperation for a new job is also thrown into the mix there seems to be a heighten level of underhandedness in an already cut throat world.
Each candidate is entered in the first of a series of jobs interviews with their fierce future boss, played by the seasoned McDowell whose presence rightfully dominates his screen time, his no nonsense approach gives a great indication of his ruthlessness in the boardroom, and his determination to find the right person. But waking up in a locked room with a few strangers, it’s James (Dastmalchian) who starts to steer the movie. I haven’t seen him in much since Prisoners where he plays that freaky psycho with the snakes but in a total reversal he’s quite a pleasant and capable lead but he’s only just stands out in this mix of mad characters. Continue reading The Employer (2013)→
Director: Chris Sun. Starring. Bill Moseley, Nathan Jones, John Jarratt, Simone Buchanan, Melissa Tkautz. Australia. 1h 35m.
With all of the cult success of Razorback you’d think that a future giant killer pig movie would try to work on that cult goodness and up the ante, but for so many reasons Boar kept trying to deliver but for me it stumbled and fell flat in the mud.
There are two intermingling storylines, one surrounds an Australian family, with a new American patriarch, Bruce (Moseley) who’s pretty iconic when it comes to the horror scene but sadly he’s really out of place and underused in terrible way, people really should be arrested and jailed for this kind of neglect. The family is on vacation and are aiming to camp out and meet family, kicking back and having a good time. Meanwhile an eagle eyed wisen old man of the land Ken (Jarratt) is looking to kick back with some beers and a friend when he notices something strange and head out in the night to investigate. After this laborious introduction the movie fails to pick up the pace but it does try to delight it’s audience with a few blood thirsty killings and they are pretty mediocre.
Director: Makinov Starring: Vinessa Shaw, Ebon Moss-Bachrach .Mexico. 1h 40m Based on: El juego de los niños by Juan José Plans
In a bold attempt to update and update the 1976 classic Who Can Kill a Child but Narciso Ibanes Serrador, Makinov has basically just remade it with little care to really expand the story and somehow it now seems slightly underpowered and drawl in all areas which could have been improved.
A young couple, Beth (Shaw) and Francis (Moss-Bachrach) are on holiday and travelling around remote islands before the birth of their child. On arriving at a new island they discover a lone boy fishing but make their way into town finding it pretty vacant. Settling down in an abandoned bar they make themselves drinks and food, assuming that everyone is sleeping off the after math of festival season. Continue reading Come out and play (2012)→
Director: Gerard Johnson Starring: Peter Ferdinando, Stephen Graham, MyAnna Buring, Elisa Lasowski, Neil Maskell, Richard Dormer, Tony Pitts, Mehmet Ferda .UK. 1h 24m
This matter of fact police corruption movie turns out to be not only thrilling, but delicately devious which sees the argument of righter and wronger turns heels from the streets of London into a literal blood bath. Johnson keeps the movie on it’s feet with fast camera action that in ways follows it’s heroes and foes like an episode of [insert your favourite cop drama here] the story slowly steps out from the calamity from time to time through bloody revelations, and it all becomes too much for the hardened street cop who is the focus of the movie. There’s something raw about the filming approach, the locations aren’t luxurious especially in the daytime which are filmed on any street corner, something we can all relate to, but at night the film comes alive in darkness and neon, the characters aren’t built on in the conventional way, instead they are more like sweaty desperate chess pieces but still the camera moves around them with glee.
Director: Lowell Dean Starring: Katharine Isabelle, Michael Shanks, Brendan Fehr, Brendan Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jesse Moss .Canada. 1h 27m
For a debut feature, there are a lot of pluses for this well written movie from director Lowell Dean, as he explores the almost burnt out zombie horror wave but despite falling back on a few cliches it’s a fairly good horror that sees a few members of Ginger Snaps reunite for a toxic zombie horror adventure in the woods.
Six forensic undergraduates have to ace a scientific field exam if they want their dream job of body hacking in the name of science. They are taken to a remote deserted island in an area known as Eerie Strait, island 13 has been set up as a Body Farm, their tutor Tomkins (Shanks) is overconfident and seems bored and often put off from the outset. He has prepared the island with surveillance cameras and walkie talkies and had the task of monitoring the students throughout their tests of finding corpses and identifying cause of death and length of time left to the elements.
This amazing capture by Kevin Vu outlines a dream becoming a reality as a facially unique fashion model prepares for her first runway, having dealt with a number of challenges, both mentally and physically the big time shakes his delicate girl to her core as she has to face some final demons.It’s quite a remarkable take on a unique experience that drags up a torture past from birth to show. I feel for her as she’s such a darling character.
Trypophobia
I know a handful of people who suffer from this crazy phobia. which is totally understandable as it doesn’t look very healthy to see lots of holes appear in one’s flesh, and that’s exactly what happens to his unfortunate woman who accidentally drops her phone into a bin in a dodgy rest room? While fishing it out she gets stuck by a syringe containing a very dodgy virus… mayhem ensures in one a toilet that rivals the icon bogs of Glasgow as seen in Trainspotting. I wonder what phobia Buddy Booth will play next time?? Continue reading Short Movie Roundup 22 September 2019→
Director: Michael DeGrazier, Benjamin Paulides Starring. Jaryd Atadero, DeOrr Kunz Jr., Nate Eaton .USA. 1h m.
I was slightly on the wrong track with this movie, no pun intended.
After listening to the Mysterious Universe Podcast (since season 5 check out the awesome podcast here https://mysteriousuniverse.org ) I’ve heard/read a lot about Missing 411 persons, but obviously with the theme of the podcast these tales go into high strangeness often involving Bigfoot and UFOs etc etc. I was expecting to see some crazy trail camera footage and maybe some abandoned staircases in the woods, or even recounts of historical unsolved cases. In contrast this documentary movie is more about a handful of cases which represent the tip of the iceberg of Missing 411’s but with a slight connection, all cases involve young children often with hearing impairments. Continue reading Missing 411 (2004)→
Director: Piers Haggard. Starring. Linda Hayde, Patrick Wymark, Michelle Dotrice, Wendy Padbury, Anthony Ainley, Barry Andrews, UK. 1h 40m.
There’s always something dark and demonic smouldering in the movies situated deep in the English Countryside, and it’s never so in your face as in Piers Hagards, trippy macabre masterpiece that has a lot of connection with Michael Reeves’sWitchfinder General, the Wicker Man (1973) and in some ways I feel there’s an artistic nature similar to a Ken Russellthe Devils (1971) albeit it in a much tamer manner.
A ploughboy stumbles on some strange remains in a field, the bones and ever staring eyeball causes the boy to start running in terror, he soon realises that his unhappy accident has unearthed the remains of an ancient demonic presence which is now free to possess his village. The first signs of danger happen in a prestigious house, where a wealthy family a host to a young girl, one that has taken the fancy of their eligible son, but due to his mother’s tough nature she’s forced into the attic, late into the night her screams wake the family, once she’s rescued her personality has completely changes, now deranged and bearing deadly sharp claws she’s taken away by the authorities and clergy.
With the aftermath of Halloween and the beginning of the Heathen/Pagan new year, I had a lot of planning and thinking to do. But I did cram in a bunch of movies.
Mad Max
Henry and June
Get Carter
Ninth Gate
Scars of Dracula
The Room
Escobar – Paradise Lost
*Preservation 6/10
*Bone Tomahawk 7/10 Begotten
The Room Dead Lands
*Bleeders 4/10
Open Range
*The Return of Dr x 7/10
I Frankenstein *Universal Soldier 4 6/10 Lego Movie
Green Inferno *Trick of Treat 7/10
*Little Girl who Lived Down the Lane 7/10
*Pressure 6/10
*Blood 6/10 Last of the mohicans *Hollow 3/10 The Evil that Men Do *The Stanford Prison Experiment 6/10 Frost/Nixon
Doom
Rasputin Zardoz
Se7en
Tusk
*Lila and Eve 4/10 Silence of the Lambs
*Creep 2/10 Hannibal
Warrior
*The Hills Have Eyes 2 5/10
*Religious 8/10
*Blood for Dracula 8/10 Nightbreed
Event Horizon
*Judy 2/10
*Ginger Clown 1/10
*True Story 6/0 Suspiria
My Bloody Valentine
Se7en
Gladiator
Hunger
Bone Tomahawk
Welcome to the Punch
*SPL2 8/10
*REC 4 7/10 Green Inferno
Rampage *Flutter 7/10 Anamorph *Bad Building 3/10 Killing Zoe
No Vacancy
Barbarella
Thale
The Hills Have Eyes 2
Religiouous
Once were warriors
Deep Star Six Naked Lunch
Shawshank Redemption
Amelie
Life of Brian
Psycho
The Lives of Others The Matrix
Memento
Requiem for a Dream
Labrynth
Conan the Barbarian Long Time Dead
Orlando
Director: Mary Harron Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny,Cara Seymour, Justin Theroux, Guinevere Turner, Reese Witherspoon .USA. 1h 41m
After the success of a brilliant deeply disturbing and somewhat witty and stylish novella of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, Mary Harron transformed the saucy satirical bits into this cult movie starring the charismatic Chriistian Bale at the front of star studded cast. Bale was set to steal the show and this really boosted his career and ego to the outer limits, but I can’t argue that he gives a smart and sensuous performance.
I read the book and was happy to leave it as that, something the original author agrees with, but it became impossible to totally avoid the movie as it’s used to popular culture so much through doll’s phrases, and gifs it’s unavoidable.
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